Foreign ministers of S. Korea, China, Japan to hold talks on N. Korea

   Top diplomats from South Korea, China and Japan will hold three-way talks early next month on regional security and cooperation, Seoul's foreign ministry said Thursday, with North Korea's rocket plan expected to be a hot topic on the sidelines.
   South Korean Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan will hold the two-day tripartite talks with China's Yang Jiechi and Japan's Koichiro Gemba in the eastern Chinese city of Ningbo starting April 7, ministry spokesman Cho Byung-jae said.
   The three-way meeting, the sixth of its kind, comes as North Korea has defied international condemnation and pressed ahead with its plan to launch a satellite into orbit on the back of a long-range rocket sometime between April 12 and 16.
   "It is certain that the issue (of North Korea's planned rocket launch) will be discussed bilaterally on the sidelines of the trilateral talks," Cho said.
   Earlier on Thursday, Japan's Tokyo Shimbun reported that Pyongyang has started fueling a rocket for the planned launch, citing a source close to North Korea. Cho said he could not confirm the report, saying it is an intelligence matter.
   South Korea, the United States and Japan have condemned the North's rocket plan as a disguised test of its improved international ballistic missile technology.
   The North's maneuver also puts in jeopardy an aid-for-denuclearization deal Pyongyang signed with Washington in late February.
   South Korean and Japanese military officials have said they would shoot down the rocket if it violates their airspace.
   Pyongyang's missile program has long been a regional security concern, along with its nuclear programs. The country is believed to have advanced ballistic missile technology, though it is still not clear whether it has mastered the technology to put a nuclear warhead on a missile.
   North Korea has carried out two nuclear tests, first in 2006 and then in 2009.

U.S. to rethink N. Korea policy in case of rocket launch: Pentagon official

 The Obama administration will overhaul its approach toward North Korea if it presses ahead with a multiple-stage rocket launch next month, a senior Pentagon official said Thursday.
   James Miller, nominated as undersecretary of defense for policy, made clear that the U.S. won't be able to fulfill what it agreed to do in a Feb. 29 aid-for-concession deal with North Korea.
   "My view is that if North Korea goes forward with this test, we will stop this aid and stop the other steps that we had intended to take and have to have a complete reconsideration of where we go in the future," he said in a Senate confirmation hearing.
   He is currently serving as principal deputy undersecretary of defense for policy. If confirmed, he will replace Michele Flournoy, who retired in February.
   After high-level talks in Beijing in February, the U.S. said it would provide 240,000 metric tons of food aid to the North. It was an apparent reward for Pyongyang, which pledged to suspend some of its nuclear and long-range missile activities. The two sides also reportedly agreed to a set of social and cultural exchanges, including a concert by a North Korean orchestra in the U.S.
   But the North abruptly announced a plan to launch a rocket that it claims is intended to put an observation satellite into orbit. The launch would take place April 12-16, the North said.
   Miller confirmed that 240,000 tons of food aid is worth US$200 million.
   He pointed out North Korea's missile and weapons of mass destruction programs pose a "direct and serious threat" to U.S. regional allies and parters.
   The also have the "potential to become a direct threat to U.S. territory," he said.
   He stressed, however, the need for continued efforts to resolve the North Korea issue diplomatically.
   "I believe the United states must work with our allies and other key partners in the region and internationally on diplomatic solutions to the range of pressing concerns we face with North Korea," he said. "Under the appropriate conditions, direct diplomatic engagement with North Korea is important as well."
In a separate congressional hearing, meanwhile, Adm. Samuel Locklear, who heads the U.S. Pacific Command, said the North's rocket move is the "most pressing security situation."
   "We will have to continue to be positioned to ensure security from those type of provocative events that the North Korean regime seems to be intent on pursuing," he told the members of the House Committee on Appropriations.
   Testifying next to him, Gen. James Thurman, commander of the 28,500 U.S. troops in South Korea, said that the launch will unequivocally violate U.N. Security Council resolutions that ban it from using ballistic missile technology.
   He added the North's new leader, Kim Jong-un, is following the "same patterns" of behavior of his late father, Kim Jong-il, and grandfather, Kim Il-sung.
   "I do think he is being closely shepherded by his uncle, Kim Jong-il's brother-in-law, Jang Song-thaek," he said. Jang, granted four-star general rank recently, serves as vice chairman of the powerful National Defense Commission.

Japanese PM Stirs Up Trouble with 'Comfort Women' Remark

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda stirred up a long-simmering dispute between his country and Korea with comments Tuesday about a Korean statue in honor of the so-called comfort women forced into sexual slavery during World War II. 
The Sankei Shimbun on Tuesday reported that Noda at a session of the Diet told lawmakers that wording on the statue saying "comfort woman forced into sexual slavery" is "far from accurate." His comment came in response to a question by lawmaker Eriko Yamatani from the conservative Liberal Democratic Party. 
The statue was set up in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul, and the legend reads, "This peace monument reflects people's genuine desire to learn from history and remember the past on the occasion of the 1,000th weekly protest against Japan's atrocities by comfort woman forced into sexual slavery." 
Noda also stressed that he asked President Lee Myung-bak during a bilateral summit in December to remove the statue. 
The Korean government and civic groups here want Japan to offer a sincere apology and compensation for forcing women into sexual slavery for its troops during the occupation of Korea from 1910 to 1945. But the Japanese government maintains that the women were not forced into sexual slavery but volunteered to make money, and that all compensation was settled under a 1965 treaty that normalized relations between the two countries.

S. Korea slams Japan's new textbook laying claim to Dokdo

South Korea summoned a Japanese diplomat on Tuesday to protest Japan's latest history textbook that reasserts Tokyo's territorial claims to Seoul's easternmost islets of Dokdo.
The protest came after Japan's education ministry announced this week the results of its review of a high school history textbook that renewed Japan's territorial claim to the islets, according to South Korean officials.

Antique Japanese maps put Dokdo under Korean control

   A South Korean institute on Wednesday uncovered three more antique Japanese maps showing Dokdo as Korean territory, offering what could be critical evidence against Tokyo's fresh claims to the South Korean islets.
   The revelation came a day after Japan's education ministry reasserted Tokyo's territorial claim to the islets in its latest review of high school textbooks. South Korea immediately protested the move by calling in a Japanese diplomat to the foreign ministry and issuing a statement expressing "deep disappointment" at the approval of the textbook, which it said "justifies a distorted historical perspective."
   In a posting on its Web site, the Northeast Asian History Foundation said it was holding a press conference earlier in the day to reveal the three maps to the Korean public for the first time, along with several others that were published between the late 18th century and the early 20th century.
   One of the maps, printed in 1892, used different colors for Japan and Dokdo, while another one from 1895 did not include the islets within the boundaries of Shimane Prefecture, the closest Japanese region to the rocky outcroppings, according to the institute.
   A map from 1904 painted Dokdo in lavender, the same color as Korea's Gangwon Province, it said.
   Japan's claims to Dokdo, which lies closer to South Korea in the body of water that divides the Korean Peninsula and Japan, have long been a thorn in relations between Seoul and Tokyo.
   South Korea rejects the claims because the country regained independence from Japan's 36-year colonial rule in 1945 and reclaimed sovereignty over its territory, including Dokdo and many other islands around the Korean Peninsula.
   South Korea keeps a small police detachment on Dokdo, effectively controlling it.


Source: Yonhap News Agency

Source: Yonhap News Agency

Leaders make fresh commitments toward safer world without nuclear terror

Global leaders made fresh commitments Tuesday toward building a safer world without nuclear terrorism, presenting pledged reductions of weapons-grade fissile material, either completed or under way, as evidence that the two-year-old Nuclear Security Summit process is working.

The two-day gathering in Seoul of leaders and high-level representatives from 53 countries and four major organizations around the world ended with a joint declaration, dubbed the "Seoul Communique."
   "Nuclear terrorism continues to be one of the most challenging threats to international security," the communique said. "Defeating this threat requires strong national measures and international cooperation, given its potential global political, economic, social and psychological consequences."
   The statement called for minimizing the use of weapons-usable, highly enriched uranium by the end of 2013 and set 2014 as a target date for putting into effect an amendment to the Convention for the Physical Protection of Nuclear Materials (CPPNM).
   CPPNM is a key international pact that stipulates physical protection of nuclear materials during international transport, lays out a framework for cooperation in the protection, recovery, and return of stolen nuclear material and lists certain serious offenses involving nuclear material. A 2005 amendment, which includes protection for nuclear facilities, has yet to take effect.
   The Seoul meeting is a follow-up to the inaugural summit hosted by Obama in Washington in 2010 when leaders focused on strengthening the security of fissile material worldwide and securing against nuclear terrorism.
   In Seoul, world leaders, including Obama, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Chinese President Hu Jintao assessed accomplishments of commitments made in Washington and laid out more concrete actions to curb the threat of nuclear terrorism and illicit trafficking.

"During the Seoul summit ... new commitments were put forward that will reduce the threat of nuclear terrorism," host South Korean President Lee Myung-bak said during a news conference as chairman.

   "I firmly believe these leader-level political consensuses will be embodied through international cooperation and domestic measures of each country," he said.

   During the conference, Lee put forth cases of progress one after another that have been made since the Washington summit, including disposal of 480 kilograms of highly enriched uranium by eight countries, an amount enough for 19 nuclear weapons.

   Ukraine and Mexico, in particular, accomplished a total "cleanout" of all stockpiles of highly enriched uranium just prior to the Seoul meeting by returning them to Russia and the United States, he said.

   In addition, 3,000 nuclear weapons worth of highly enriched uranium has been downgraded to safer, low-enriched uranium in Russia and the U.S. The two nations are also working to implement an agreement that will result in the removal 68 tons of plutonium, enough for 17,000 nuclear weapons, he said.

   Other cases of progress included Belgium, France, South Korea and the U.S. announcing a joint project on developing high-density low-enriched uranium fuel to replace highly enriched uranium in research reactors.

   The Czech Republic, Mexico and Vietnam converted their research reactors using highly enriched uranium to low-enriched uranium, while Belgium, France, the Netherlands and the U.S. also announced a joint project to produce medical isotopes without the use of highly enriched uranium by 2015.

   Noting Japan's nuclear disaster last year, the communique also called for "the nexus between nuclear security and nuclear safety."

   "We consider that sustained efforts are required to address the issue of nuclear safety and security in a coherent manner that will help ensure the safe and secure peaceful uses of nuclear energy," it said.

   In the aftermath of Japan's Fukushima nuclear disaster, calls have grown for the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), to carry out more stringent inspections and for better cooperation and crisis management among nuclear regulators around the world.

   The potential threat of nuclear terrorism was highlighted by the Fukushima disaster because it showcased the extent of potential damage if terrorists were to sabotage key systems of a nuclear power plant such as a power supply or cooling system, experts said.

   The document reaffirmed the key role of the IAEA.

   "We welcome the intent by the IAEA to continue to lead efforts to assist states" to effectively prevent nuclear terrorism and ensure the safety of atomic energy.

   During the news conference, Lee said it will be difficult for North Korea to transfer nuclear material out of its borders if countries around the world follow through with measures discussed during the just-ended international conference on nuclear security.

   "Unlike in the past, it will be difficult for North Korea" to transfer nuclear material beyond its borders "if an international monitoring system gets into operation," he told the conference.

   Lee also said world leaders raised North Korea's planned rocket launch during the conference.

   "Though it was discussed during bilateral summits, many leaders also raised the issue during the main meeting as well," Lee told the conference. "I think North Korea will be affected psychologically by these efforts to keep nuclear material from falling into the hands of dangerous people."

   Lee stressed that the rocket launch is a "head-on challenge" to the international community.

   Lee also said that not only the United States, but also Russia and even the "Chinese representative" pointed out during bilateral summits with him that the rocket launch is not desirable at a time when Pyongyang should care about improving the lives of its people.

   A third summit will be held in the Netherlands in 2014. 

Source: Yonhap News Agency

Korean Grilling on Glass, at Kristalbelli

Coming to Midtown before Christmas: Kristalbelli, Manhattan’s latest entry in the global quest to make Korean barbecue upscale, not just popular. Its chef, David Shim, has worked at Gramercy Tavern, L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon and Veritas. He promises Wagyu beef, organic vegetables, pork belly and the usual prize morsels for grilling.
But the main attraction will be the grills themselves. Each unit, set in the center of the table, is made of a single piece of crystal, with infrared heat that will produce higher temperatures than charcoal or gas grills. In Korea, both infrared and crystal cooking have been touted for their health benefits. Here, some backyard grill jockeys have experimented with infrared, but this will be a first for a restaurant. Powerful downdraft machines are promised to suck the usual smoke and cooking smells out through the floor.
This combination of sleek lounge and D.I.Y. grilling is the brainchild of the young Korean entertainment mogul J.Y. Park.

World leaders to endorse specific actions to counter nuclear terrorism

World leaders gathered for a second summit on nuclear security are poised to approve more specific plans and new pledges of action to prevent nuclear terrorism and ensure atomic safety, diplomats said Tuesday. 
Top leaders from 53 nations and four international organizations, including U.S. President Barack Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao, on Monday kicked off a two-day meeting dedicated to making the world a safer place without the threat of nuclear terrorism. 

On Cheonan anniversary, Seoul presses N. Korea to quit rocket launch

South Korean Prime Minister Kim Hwang-sik pressed North Korea on Monday to call off its planned rocket launch next month that could invite further international sanctions.
Kim said a long-range rocket launch is a violation of a U.N. Security Council resolution and a grave provocation to international peace and security. The North announced that it would launch a rocket between April 12 and 16 to put an earth observation satellite into orbit as part of its peaceful space program.

S. Korea ready for nuke summit

A night view of the Convention and Exhibition Center (Coex) in southern Seoul, the venue for the Nuclear Security Summit, on March 25, 2012. Set for March 26-27, the summit will include discussions on ways to counter nuclear terrorism, with representatives from 53 nations and four international organizations, including 44 heads of state, set to attend.  

 Obama in S. Korea to attend nuke summit

 S. Africa's Zuma visits S. Korea for nuke summit

Members of police special forces patrol a district in front of the Convention and Exhibition Center (COEX), the venue for the upcoming Nuclear Security Summit, in Seoul on March 24, 2012, two days ahead of the opening of the summit. 

 Australian PM visits S. Korea for nuke summit

  Belgian deputy PM visits S. Korea for nuke summit

 Norway's Stoltenberg visits S. Korea for nuke summit

Armenia's Sargsyan visits S. Korea for nuke summit

World leaders are flocking to Seoul for a summit to prevent nuclear-armed terror, but tensions over North Korea's push to arm itself with nuclear weapons and long-range missiles is set to dominate the sidelines of the event, diplomats here said Sunday.

Leaders from 53 nations and four international organizations will convene Monday and Tuesday for the second Nuclear Security Summit, but North Korea's rocket launch planned for mid-April has overshadowed the global gathering.

U.S. President Barack Obama arrived in Seoul earlier Sunday and then visited the tense border with North Korea, calling the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) "freedom's frontier."

"The contrast between South Korea and North Korea could not be clearer, could not be starker," Obama, who was wearing a dark windbreaker, told a group of American troops inside the DMZ, according to a pool report. About 28,500 U.S. troops are stationed in South Korea.

Obama launched the first nuclear security summit in Washington two years ago and the Seoul summit is aimed at working out more specific actions to prevent loose nuclear materials from falling into the hands of terrorists.

Nuclear issues on North Korea and Iran are not on the agenda for the summit, but Seoul officials have said that the North Korean nuclear issue can be discussed bilaterally on the margins of the summit.

Except North Korea, leaders of all member countries involved in the six-party talks on ending the North's nuclear drive will attend the Seoul summit. The multilateral talks, involving the two Koreas, the U.S., China, Japan and Russia, have been stalled since late 2008.

After a bilateral summit with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak in Seoul on Sunday, Obama warned that the North's provocative move will deepen its isolation, hurt relations with neighboring countries and harm the prospects of future negotiations.

The Lee-Obama meeting, the first since the death in December of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, came amid heightened tension following the North's announcement of plans last week to launch a rocket in mid-April to put what it called a "working" satellite into orbit.

South Korea, Japan and the U.S. have defined the North's rocket launch plan as a disguised test of its improved long-range missile technology and warned that it would retaliate should the country go ahead with the plan.

The North's move also puts in jeopardy an aid-for-denuclearization deal it signed with the U.S. in late February, promising to suspend its uranium enrichment and allow in U.N. nuclear monitors in exchange for 240,000 tons of food aid.

In an interview with Yonhap News Agency on Friday, Gary Samore, the coordinator for arms control at the U.S. National Security Council, warned that North Korea will face a "strong response" from the U.S. and its allies if it goes ahead with the launch.

"We will be working with other countries, when President Obama is here, to try to discourage North Korea from going ahead with the proposed satellite launch," Samore said.

A principle achievement for the first nuclear security summit in Washington was gaining agreement by all 47 participating nations that nuclear terrorism is among the top global security challenges and that strong nuclear material security measures are the most effective way to prevent it.

The Seoul summit will serve as a "stepping stone" to translate the political will generated at the Washington summit into action, while laying a cornerstone for attaining key nuclear security goals in the mid and long-term, Seoul diplomats said.

Negotiators, or "sherpas" from the 53 participating nations for the Seoul summit, held their final meeting in Seoul on Friday and fixed the agenda for the Seoul summit and the text of the so-called "Seoul Communique" that will be announced at the end of the summit, said Hahn Choong-hee, a spokesman for the summit.

On the sidelines of the two-day summit, President Lee will also hold a series of bilateral summit meetings with China's Hu Jintao and Russia's Dmitry Medvedev to discuss the issue of the North's planned rocket launch.

Obama and Hu are also scheduled to hold a bilateral summit during the nuclear security conference.

On the eve of the largest summit hosted by South Korea, more than 20 heads of state, including Chinese President Hu and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, arrived in Seoul.

Before the summit begins on Monday afternoon, leaders from 23 nations, including Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, will touch down in the South Korean capital, organizers said.

During the summit, Noda will tell about the lessons his government has learned from the Fukushima nuclear disaster. The summit's main agenda includes ensuring atomic safety.

A powerful earthquake and an ensuing tsunami devastated Japan's Northeastern region last March, killing some 20,000 people. It destroyed the Fukushima nuclear power plants, causing environmental havoc to the area.

The accident, classified as the worst nuclear calamity since the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, prompted countries with nuclear power plants to further review the safety of their atomic energy.

Media attention is high. Organizers said more than 3,000 journalists from around the world have been registered.

Security is tight at the summit's venue in southern Seoul, the Convention and Exhibition Center (COEX).

Police have raised the nation's terror alert to the highest level, "severe," ahead of the summit.

Tens of thousands of police officers have been dispatched to COEX as well as airports, foreign consulates and hotels where nuclear summit leaders will stay during the summit. Police officials have been placed on emergency standby in every subway station in the capital.

Seoul officials said that the Netherlands has agreed to host the third Nuclear Security Summit in 2014. At the Seoul summit, South Korea will likely formally name the Netherlands as the host for the next summit.

Source: Yonhap News Agency

Obama to have broader diplomatic issues in mind during DMZ trek

Staring at North Korea through binoculars at the heavily fortified land border with South Korea, U.S. President Barack Obama will attempt to send a message not only to Pyongyang but also to Teheran, another recalcitrant regime in the eyes of western officials, a U.S. newspaper said Saturday.
Obama's trip to the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), which former President Bill Clinton called "the scariest place on Earth" during his own visit, is apparently aimed at boosting his image as the "sole commander-in-chief" of the U.S., beset with a host of thorny diplomatic issues, including North Korea, Afghanistan, Syria and Iran, according to Politico.

Source: Yonhap News Agency

UN's Ban to raise N. Korea launch at Seoul summit

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Thursday that he would raise North Korea's planned rocket launch at a Seoul nuclear summit next week, expressing "deep concern" over the issue. "I am going to discuss the issue with the president of the Republic of (South Korea) in Seoul and I will also engage with other leaders attending the nuclear summit," Ban told a press conference in Malaysia. The nuclear-armed North has announced it will launch a rocket next month to put a satellite into orbit, a move which the US and its allies see as a pretext for a long-range missile test.
Pyongyang has said any South Korean attempt to address the North's nuclear programme at the March 26-27 Seoul summit would be seen as a declaration of war.
But the programme and the rocket launch were expected to be hot topics on the sidelines of the meeting, which will see US President Barack Obama and other world leaders meet to discuss nuclear security issues. A UN Security Council resolution passed after the North staged missile and nuclear tests in 2009 bans a ballistic missile launch for any purpose.
"As secretary-general of the United Nations I express my deep concern by the announcement of the (North Korean) government (on) their intention to launch a satellite," Ban said.
Ban, a South Korean, also called the planned launch "a clear violation" of Security Council resolutions and said it "threatens the peace and security on the Korean peninsula".
He said it could also undermine recent positive signs on long-running international efforts to end North Korea's nuclear program. Under a deal announced last month but now in jeopardy, Washington would offer substantial food aid for a partial nuclear freeze. It has raised modest hopes of progress in the denuclearisation efforts. Those hopes have also seen the UN atomic agency, the IAEA, begin consultations with North Korea over a possible visit to the country by its inspectors to monitor nuclear activities, an IAEA spokeswoman said Thursday.
North Korea expelled UN inspectors in 2009, but announced earlier this week that it had invited them back. Ban said however that the communist North was again giving mixed messages. "This (the rocket launch) is again undermining the positive atmosphere which has been established recently between the US and (North Korea)," Ban said.
The North has lambasted next week's meeting -- the South's biggest-ever diplomatic gathering -- as an "unsavoury burlesque" intended to justify an atomic attack by South Korea and its US ally. In Seoul, South Korean Foreign Minister Kim Sung-Hwan again appealed to the North to scrap its rocket launch, calling it "a grave provocation".
South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak reportedly said Wednesday that despite Pyongyang's threats, leaders of five nations will discuss ways to press North Korea to abandon its plans to launch the rocket.
The United States, China, South Korea, Japan and Russia have been involved since 2003 in the talks, which have been broken off repeatedly over various instances of North Korean brinksmanship. North Korea's state news agency said Wednesday any attempt by Lee to raise the issue would be "a ridiculous attempt and an absolutely unpardonable criminal act".
"Any provocative act would be considered as a declaration of war against us and its consequences would serve as great obstacles to talks on the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula," it said.


Source: AFP

President Obama may visit Korean DMZ

In a special commencement this month, it was announced that President Barack Obama is due to visit the demilitarized zone on South Korea‘s border with the North on Sunday before a nuclear summit in Seoul.
The United States president’s trip to the area separating the north and south on the Korean peninsula comes amidst increased tension over Pyongyang‘s plan to launch a rocket next month. His visit will be a show of support for South Korea, said the White House. There are currently about 28,500 US soldiers stationed in the area.
The 2.5-mile-wide DMZ is the most heavily guarded border area in the world. Former US President Bill Clinton described it as ’‘the scariest place on earth’‘ when he visited in the 1990s. Obama, who is expected to renew pressure on Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear ambitions, will also meet South Korea’s President Lee Myung-bak ahead of the summit starting on Monday. 
The three-day Nuclear Security Summit involves more than 53 leaders from nations and international organizations. Obama is also due to meet Chinese President Hu Jintao and is widely expected to urge him to draw on Beijing‘s influence for nuclear negotiations with Pyongyang.

Korean Film: Architecutre 101 (건축학개론)

Although Architecture 101 (건축학개론) will premiere tomorrow, I got the opportunity to go to a preview screening. Long story short, the film was actually pretty good mainly because Suzy was in it (하악하악~).
Suzy took on the role of the young Seo-yun, who develops ties with Lee Je-hoon's role. The two college freshmen fall in love with each other but never confess their love because they don't have the courage. Later on, the future Seo Yun (Han Ga-in) goes to see Seung-min (Uhm Tae-woong) for the first time in 15 years to ask him to build a house for her. And together they reminisce about their past broken romance.
All I have to say (because I'm tired of writing shit on this blog (hint: I'm not voluntarily running this blog), and don't want to spoil the movie) is go watch this movie. Is it worth the money? Yes, if you like Suzy (or Han Ga In)... It was for me because I am a fan of her (I like Suzy over IU). For IU lovers out there, sorry, but IU is overrated.


And just a heads up, this guy(조정석)'s in it...